The ancient proverb “It takes a village” comes to mind when thinking about the Health Information Management (HIM) profession and content management in our hospitals, health systems, and ambulatory practices. In addition to the sheer volumes of paper and electronic formats captured daily, approximately 80% of healthcare data are unstructured. With a consistent approach, healthcare professionals can work to improve the processes around managing content with team-based workflows to help meet value-based care goals while also delivering a positive patient experience.

Enterprise content management (ECM) is described by the Association for Intelligence Information Management (AIIM) as “the strategies, methods and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes.” Benefits of an ECM approach that unlocks new ways of working include:

• Increased operational efficiency
• Enriched patient care
• Improved workflow
• Seamless access to data/information
• Enhanced data security

Capturing content with intelligence

As documents enter an organization, it takes time and labor to identify the document type, recognize the information, and assign identifiers or metadata. Once analyzed, they can then be saved and routed to their destination. In many organizations, this is currently a manual process that requires a team of professionals.

The right enterprise content management system can automate these processes using intelligent data capture learning instead of staff resources and help gain efficiencies across the entire enterprise. Organizations utilizing the right technology for ingesting digital material can process, classify, extract, validate, and route it to the proper place and provide more timely access.

Based on a set of business rules, data are delivered to an identified end location, whether that is a repository of charts or folders in an application, a line of business system, or an electronic health record (EHR). The EHR can then offer direct links to the information within the system.

Uncovering insights with enterprise search

Once captured, the large volume of acquired information resides in clinical and non-clinical repositories within the enterprise content management system. The next step to providing excellent patient care and superior customer service is to make those data discoverable through contextual keyword searches, similar to a Google search. While structured data can be easier to locate, additional information hidden below the surface can be more challenging to find. It may be stored in a legacy system, text file, an image file, a PDF file, or even an audio or video file.

A system that offers an enterprise search tool bundled with data capture and extraction allows for the reading of multiple formats including text, images, and structured and unstructured data. This advanced search capability can help further identify trends or patterns, reduce data silos and blind spots, and locate information in legacy systems. Contextual keyword searches can be particularly useful in providing a full patient profile, enabling an HIM department to quickly find historical patient records filed several years prior that can’t be found in the EHR. It can also often eliminate detailed report requests as well as reduce hand-off risks among clinicians.

Transforming across the enterprise

The typical healthcare organization is a village in itself. An ECM system is a significant investment that can automate processes across the enterprise to provide a seamless view within your EHR, the registration office, the financial aid office, HIM department, as well as other areas including human resources, research, accounts payable, and contracts.

Business Process Management (BPM) improves workflows across the enterprise through automation and electronic routing of approvals as well as other processes with manual steps such as document retention processes and forms on demand. Data is delivered to users at critical points within a process to save time and elevate efficiencies. System integrations and enhanced user experiences within healthcare organizations allow users to stay within their workflow and primary systems for seamless, unified access to their complete clinical and business records.

Quanum Enterprise Content Solutions from Quest Diagnostics offers Intelligent Data Capture, Deep Search, and Business Process Management to help your organization automate team-based workflows and achieve your content management goals. For more information or to schedule a demo, send us an email.